HDSDR vs. SDR-Console

07/03/2015 / ea3hoe / 0 Comments

Currently i am using HDSDR as my panadapter for having a glance at the band while i am working with the radio. And while HDSDR is a great piece of software we also know that HDSDR is a technical piece of software where user friendliness was not the main priority when it was developed, to say the least. It actually takes quite some time to get it configured properly and to find all the buttons and dials you can use and how to actually use them properly.

There are many other software programs out there, the most used ones being SDR#, PowerSDR and many more. Because i still am not completely used to HDSDR sometimes i start to get frustrated (specially when listening to FM wide-band radio) and start looking for other software to do what i do. My requirements are:

Clear and configurable waterfall and audio scope

CAT control either direct or through Omni-Rig

Ease of use

As many modes possible

Protocol decoding is a nice to have

Someone in one of the SDR Facebook groups suggested me to try out SDR-Radio V2. SDR-Radio is written by Simon Brown HB9DRV who was also the original developer of the back then great and now not so much anymore HAM Radio Deluxe software.

Looking at SDR-Radio Simon really knows what he is doing and he packs a lot of functionality into this package. From the list mentioned above it does all and more. SDR-Radio consists of three programs, the SDR-Console, SDR-Server and Data File Analyser, from which i only going to talk about the Console.

Installing is just a matter of clicking the Install executable and Next, Next, Finish. To get the RTL adapter to work you have to copy the right dll’s into the install directory and perform the Zadig fiddling as you would with every other software that doesn’t support the RTL adapters out of the box.

When you first start the console the SDR-Console is going to ask you which SDR radio you want to use. In the Radio Definitions dialog you will find a Search option and when you did the Zadig and dll stuff right you will see an option called RTL SDR (USB). The RTL SDR (TCP) option is always there. You use this option when you want to access a remote RTL adapter. The RTL SDR (USB) option is only there if SDR-Console can accesss the RTL-SDR drivers you installed using Zadig.

When you do a search SDR-Console will find your RTL Adapters, in my case two.

Select the adapter you want to use and press OK, select the adapter again and press Start.

SDR-Console should now begin to work for you.

As you can see SDR-Console looks completely different from HDSDR. In the beginning i found SDR-Console to be pretty daunting to work with. There is A LOT of functionality here. Simon has kept the same framework he used for HRD which allows the user to open, move, float or dock panels wherever he wants, thus creating your own workspace with the features you need for what you are currently doing.

Things i like about SDR-Console:

Huge amount of functions ranging from PSK31 and RTTY decoding (very basic and those are the only protocols, unfortunately), CAT support using Omni-Rig including support for IF inputs, HF frequency database support, Satellite Tracking, FM stereo radio support, etc, etc.

Now, there is ONE thing i ABSOLUTELY don’t like about SDR-Console and that’s the way you navigate the band. I am used to point and click to select the signal i want. If you do that in SDR-Console your frequency goes everywhere. Probably it’s just me, but i lost track of many weak signals just because i saw it on the waterfall, clicked on it, forgot to remember the frequency, SDR-Console changes the frequency and i never found the signal back. If you don’t have the center frequency in the center of your screen it does the same when changing filter width or band spread by dragging the edges using the mouse. I am probably doing something wrong, but i find the HDSDR interface much more intuitive in that respect.

I find the waterfall of HDSDR more precise and more detailed. A picture says more than 1000 words.

If i look at a signal on 16.148MHz in HDSDR it looks like the image on the left. If i look at the same signal (after more than 5 minutes tuning, adjusting the filter, tuning again, adjusting the filter again, again, lost the signal, where was it? Ah, 16.148. Tuning again. THIS SUCKS!!) the signal looks like the image on the right in SDR-Console. Completely different, no details on the shift, etc.

While writing this article i had to go through the “adjusting frequency because i touched the filters”-hell again. For me this really really spoins the fun of working with SDR-Console. I love the program. It has everything HDSDR is missing, but this really needs to be fixed. Unless it’s me, of course and then i would like some suggestions on how to better manage moving across the waterfall.